


A Second Change

by masterofdestiny



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk (Comics)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Gen, Homelessness, Hurt Peter Parker, Minor Character Death, Protective Bruce Banner, Suicide Attempt, Unintentional Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:54:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26492254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterofdestiny/pseuds/masterofdestiny
Summary: Peter Parker's life has taken a dark turn and he wants to end it once and for all. However, Bruce Banner convinces him to not give up.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Peter Parker
Kudos: 9





	A Second Change

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fanfic yesterday, under a sudden impulse. I hope you will like it :)
> 
> Warning!
> 
> This fanfic is rather dark, compared to my previous stories.

A Second Change 

December 31, 2030

It was dark, cold night in New York City, few hours before the New Year. Everyone was spending the night inside, hoping that the second the last second of the countdown passes, they would be able to start a new chapter in their lives. Quit smoking, lose weight, write a book, learn how to play guitar and become second coming of John Lennon, travel around the world and so on. Everyone was happy.  
However, one person was not in good mood. Said person was also outside.

A white, skinny man dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie covered with patches was silently walking on the street. He had long, unkept brown hair, brown eyes and a messy beard which made him look like a younger Charles Manson. He was walking for the whole 6 hours straight up until he reached his destination.

A bridge.

The 39-year old man smiled sadly. Today he was finally going to end it. Peter Benjamin Parker, because that was his full name-was going to die today, on the last day of 2030. No one would miss him, everyone would think it was just another homeless person who must have gotten too drunk and fell off the bridge-very depressing, but few, if any people would care about it. May he rest in peace, now I have to go to work, sorry dude.

It would also mean that Spider-Man would die. After 10 years of crippling misery and 2 years of retirement.

But, you might ask, why would Spider-Man-the friendliest super-hero the New york City had ever known, who saved the world many times from supervillains, terrorists or serial killlers and who was always able to ensure that no matter how depressing the reality might be, people would stilll keep hope and try to make world a better place-want to commit suicide in such unceremonious way?

Well, there were three reasons.

The first was one obvious-his aunt May died. And she didn’t die due to passing away peacifully from old age in her sleep, she was murdered at age 69 in 2020. How? Cletus Kassady, a serial killer also known as Carnage, somehow found out what was Spider-Man’s real name. How-nobody knews. All that was certain was that Carnage decided to have a little fun with Peter Parker.  
On June 10, 2020 Peter Parker came back to his home from Daily Bugle when his Spider-Sense kicked in. The second he opened the door, he saw his aunt’s mutilated corpse. A sentence „Catch me if you can, Spidey. C.K. aka Carnage“ was written on the wall with her blood. Upon seeing this horryfying image, Peter threw up, yelled angrily, before dressed quickly as Spider-Man and ran to find Carnage and beat him up until he couldn’t walk.

When the super-hero and a super-villain finally met face-to-face in an abandoned factory, a fight ensued. It was a brutal, violent fight, with both of them not holding back. Eventually, the Wall-Crawler managed to overpower a Symbiote-powered enemy, used his inhuman strength to rip off the symbiote out of him and then punched him so hard that crashed into the barrel of toxic chemicals and he lost his consciousness. He was about to kill him-he really, really wanted to do it, after all, there was no doubt that Kassady was evil, he killed so many people, and now his own aunt was killed by this monster-but no mattter how much Peter wanted to deliver a final punch, no matter how huge rage was overpowering his sanity-he couldn’t. He really, really couldn’t do it. Maybe he just wasn’t this kind of person who would ever kill anyone. He just never believed that is’s ok to kill, even when a victim was a bad person. Maybe deep down he knew that everyone eventually comes back to life and hoped that maybe Aunt May will one day return (as well as the fact that Carnage could also one day come back, after all he survived getting ripped in half by Sentry and then impaled by Eddie Brock, so he might as well survive this). Maybe Peter was also afraid that the act of killing-even in case when a victim deserved it-might drastically change his personality and take a dark toll on his psyche. 

Therefore, as much as he knew he would regret it, Peter chose to spare his enemy. And tob e fair, it turned out he did the right decision. As he later found out, the force oft he punch, in addition with the exposure to these chemicals-caused a change in Cletus Kassady’s brain. When he woke up, he was no longer a sadistic nihilist who killed people simply because he could and because oft he „everyone is going to die, so what ist he difference if they die from heart attack or from getting stabbed to death)“ philosophy. Now, he was calm, quiet and he completely lost the urge to hurt and kill others. When he was sentenced to life in prison and then sent to ADX Florence, he smiled and told the judge-Thank you very much. Since then, he had become a model prisoner.

Apparently, a prison guard who was friends with Spidey once said-it seems like this son of a bitch finally became rehabilitated. Turns out that miracles do happen.

However, even through Carange was no longer a problem, Aunt May’s death took its toll on her nephew. He lost his good mood, he was no longer joking, he even stopped hanging out with other heroes and friends, he even quit his hob. He spent the next 5 years living as a Salinger-esque recluse, only leaving his home to buy food and go to work (both as Spider-Man and a janitor) and keeping everything to himself.  
The second reason was the fact that since 2025 he was homeless. He was fightning Doctor Octopus, Scorpion and Vulture when suddenly Octopus suddenly immobilised him with his metal tentacles, grinned and pushed the button on his remote control.

-Sayonara, Spiday!

At first, it seemed like nothing happened and at the same time Scorpion took a little girl hostage. However, after Spider-Man managed to defeat the animal-themed villains, saved the girl, and walked towards his home, he found out that it had been turned into a dust. There was a bomb planted beneath it which must have been activated by Otto Octavious’s remote control. And since Peter Parker had no money left now (Parker’s luck, he left all his savings in the home) he now had nowhere to go. He found a huge cardboard box and would spend the next 5 years as a drifter, sleeping in the box in some remote area (to ensure nobody would kill him in his sleep) during nights and trying to get a job (and food) during days.

And then, the last straw which broke the camel’s back said hello to him.

In 2028, Mysterio framed Spider-Man for number of crimes including murder, rape, robbery and attempted assasination of the POTUS. While Parker managed to expose the truth with the help of She-Hulk and Wolverine, it caused the public to lose trust in him. He was no longer welcomed on the streets, police officers would try to shoot him any time they saw him, children would spray ant-Spider-Man graffiti while adults would beat him up any time they got a chance and J.J. Jameson was happy since it seemed like he finally achieved his goal of turning the public against him.  
What’s worse, no other super-hero tried to help him. They were all either too busy (like Fantastic Four), refused to help due to personal reasons (X-Men and their „no mutants on Krakoa“ policy), or-like Iron-Man, Thor and Captain America-they straight up told him:

Just deal with it. Sooner or later it will all end. No reason to whine.

Only Bruce Banner and Robert Reynolds wanted and tried to help him, but Peter, knowing that they had their own demons to fight with which were much more serious-than his own and not wanting tob e their burden-politely declined.

So after all these events-murder of Aunt May and an accidental lobotomy of Carnage, ending up as a hobo and becoming a public enemy no. 1-they were all the last straw which broke the camel’s back. Peter decided that he had enough.

So now, on December 31, 2030, the 39-years old Peter Parker was standing on the bridge. He sighed, clenched his fists one more time, closed his eyes and jumped off the bridge into the cold water.

Uncle Ben, Gwen, Flash, even Zeke-I am sorry. I failed.

January 2, 2031

But instead of waking up in either Heaven or Hell, ceasing to exist, waking up in the body of a Russian engineer or entering any other form of afterlife known to him, Peter Parker woke up in the cave. He didn’t know where he was exactly, what time it was or even why was he dressed in fresh white T-shirt and Blue Jeans. He noticed a bottle of water and a bag of jelly beans next to him.   
What‘s going on, he thought. What does The One-Above-All want that now I am, for all I know, still alive on Earth in the middle of nowhere instead of being a talking skeleton? What….  
His thoughts were interupted when he saw a human person-around 45 years of age-in the entrace to the cave.

-Looks like you are alive, huh-he said in calm and no-nonsense-tone-Don’t worry, I know what do you want to say. Just like you, I am also unable to ever rest in peace without Hulk breaking me out.

Peter was observing a man, trying to figure out his identity. Brown, messy short hair, glasses, white coat associated with scientists…

-Wait, Bruce Banner?

The man smiled sarcastically-Bingo.

-Wait, how am I….  
-How are you alive and not dead, having frozen to death and drowned-Banner interrupted him-Easy. Let’s say that Immortal Hulk was jumping from place to place, trying to find the Leader and punish him for mind-controlling Rick Jones, and was enjoying the cold weather in the NYC when he saw you jumping off the bridge. Without thinking, he jumped into the water, pulled you out and took you here, to the cave in New Mexico. This cave where I had the accident that turned me into….a Hulk.

There was an awkward silence. Eventually, the long-haired and bearded man walked towards a quiet scientist and hugged him.  
-Thank you Bruce-Peter whispered-You saved me from doing a terrible mistake.  
Bruce awkwardly clapped him on his back-No problem. Neither me nor Hulk wanted your life to end this way.   
Here he paused, before he continued speaking.

-Peter, I know that the last 10 years of your life were awful. I know, you can say that my life is way worse, and maybe you are right. But I know that you don’t have to commit suicide to deal with your problems. You defeated Morlun, stopped Doctor Octopus from causing the next Flooding, saved the entire Multiverse from getting destroyed by evil copy of yourself-You have endured so many terrible problems, yet you were always able to stand up. No matter how dark the situation could get, you were the one who kept the atmosphere light, who could bring hope and happines and you are the one who makes sure that scumbags like Kingpin or Green Goblin don’t try to take over the world. You are a real hero, Peter Parker. My hero.

Peter said nothing, he was too shocked to think clearly. Eventually, he gulped and asked Banner one more thing.  
-Thanks, Bruce. It was, well, a really inspirational speech. However, may I ask you something?  
Banner raised an eyebrow-Sure, what?  
-Do you have 10 dollars or so? I think I have to catch a cheap bus. I have to take back control over my life.

Some time later….

Peter Parker was now sitting in a bus, keeping a piece of paper in his hands and holding it as i fit was his Bible. He kept thinking about how Bruce Banner (also known as Hulk) saved his life and he was happy. One day he will repay his debt to his friend, he swore. But for now he was looking at the list of tasks he was going to carry out once he came back to NYC.

1\. Get a job and find an apartment. That was obvious.  
2\. Shave your long hair and beard off. The last thing he needed was some drunk rednecks mistaking him for Charles Manson and trying to beat him up in order to avenge Sharon Tate.  
3\. Dig back your Spider-Man costume and go back to your work. After all, what is more important-what people think of you, or whether people are alive and safe, or dead and enslaved by madmen like Green Goblin or Tombstone?

Peter Parker smiled. He was given a second change and he was not going to waste it.


End file.
